A Closer Look at Atonement

A talk given at the 2002 America's Promise Bible Conference at Sandpoint, Idaho

By E. Raymond Capt

I am sure that all of you have seen, at one time or another, a stone dropped into a lake where from the point of contact, or the initial splash, comes the first circular ripple, giving place to a second and a third and others. Ultimately expanding circles reach the outermost bounds of the lake. I'd like to relate that illustration as the story of the Bible.

The stone dropped into the lake symbolizes God establishing contact with the world by creating Adam and through him the nations of Israel, and culminating in a world kingdom to be known as the "Stone Kingdom."

As God extends His plan for Adam, it gradually embraces ever-widening circles of the Adamic race. In Genesis, we see the sacrifice for the redemption of the individual -in Exodus, the sacrifice for the redemption of the individual -in Exodus, the sacrifice for the redemption of the family, then in Leviticus, the sacrifice for the redemption of the Adamic nations.

This has been true all down the road traveled by the race of Adam, to whom God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." The Adamic race was protected by it.

The Israel nation, once organized and launched on its career to point the way into the blessings of the law, which was destined to provide immunity from war, sickness, and poverty, was sheltered by the blood.

Then, when Jesus appeared on the earth to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, as written in Hebrews 9:26, "For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

Thus, the world was offered the way of escape from its long night of bondage. The guarantee of the final and eternal sacrifice is given -what God has begun, He will perfect, and what He has promised, He is able also to perform.

If you ask me how I know the world of individuals and nations will one day emerge triumphant and free, my answer is to point to Calvary and to Him who there

offered Himself, that in that mighty act as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, He might make valid all that had preceded it in type and figure. The Eternal, Himself, removed the Vail of the Temple and threw open to all the way into the holiest and fellowship with Himself.

Yes, atonement has been made for the individual, for the nation, and for the world. It is final. Yes, I said, world.

We cannot escape the fact that if we are the House of Jacob, we have been nationally redeemed. Not at some future date, but we have been, by virtue of what happened on Calvary nearly 2000 years ago.

No wonder Jesus called it His Good News. Yet, many today still hesitate to believe it. Why? One reason is the fact that to go beyond the individual application of the atonement might violate the "evangelical position." But what if the evangelical position is wrong?

No, I do not think the evangelical position is wrong, just misleading, because of its narrowness. Those who hold it can understand how the individual may come to God through Christ and find forgiveness, but they fail to grasp how this is done on a national scale. Then how was it managed in Israel in the earliest days?

Why was there a day of national atonement if the nation could not accept its forgiveness? How is anything done nationally? It does not need action by every individual in the nation to make a "national" act valid. It is enacted by representation. A representative acts for or on the behalf of the nation. What that representative does is binding on all. In the case of the Israel nation on the Day of Atonement, it was the high priest who acted on its behalf. Every act of his was representative that day.

The high priest made national confession of national sin. On behalf of the nation, he offered the national sin offering. He represented the nation as he entered the Holiest of All. After all was finished, it was the nation's sin that had been put away. No individual member of the nation was excluded from that national atonement. The Epistle to the Hebrew explains how Israel's representative is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, who entered into heaven after shedding His own blood, and one day will return as the guarantee of the validity of that sacrifice.

Is it too difficult to believe that Israel's national sin has been forgiven? Are we afraid to believe it because the nation as such has not accepted it? Does that Great Sacrifice depend upon its acceptance to make it valid? That would belittle the greatest act of God.

Did your act of coming to Christ as a penitent sinner make what he did nearly 2000 years ago valid? You know it was valid before you came, otherwise you would never have made the commitment. When you were told about Christ accepting a penitent sinner, you came to Him. However, the nation as a whole has never been told about Israel's redemption. But like Israel of old, its redemption is valid.

The Church has been silent about the national aspect of our redemption. Our nation must be told, and when told we might expect a national repentance and a return to God. Is this not what God in His Word teaches us to expect.

If this is not so, then there is little or no meaning to such statements as we find in Isaiah 44:21-22, which read: "Remember, O Jacob and Israel: for thou art my servant; I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." Notice, it reads, "have redeemed," not will redeem."

Were there not times in Israel's history when as a nation they repented and turned to God? When led by king and priest they sought and found forgiveness and peace. Why can't that happen again, today?

Could it be because our nation does not know its relationship with ancient Israel? Our shepherds, both leaders in the Government as well as the Church fail to feed His sheep with truth and knowledge. Ungodly men and women control our government and the current message of the Church is steeped in confusion. The Church is controlled by those who think it is necessary to give new and confusing meaning to what God says in the Bible.

Instead of believing that God says what He means in simple terms, intelligible to all and means exactly what He says, they teach loosely about the Jews when the Bible speaks of Israel, and when God speaks of Israel they say He means the Church. The Throne of David, instead of being on earth where God established it with David, they place it up in heaven.

When Jesus says He is coming again in person and since it was recorded that He will come in like manner as He was seen to enter heaven, they say it means just a spiritual entry. Many churches teach that the Kingdom of God, or Heaven, is nothing material and was never intended to be.

The real tragedy consists in the belief of those they are teaching, that they are learning Bible truths. A classic example of the blind leading the blind! Scripture tells us, "Who is blind, but my servant? Or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not,"

It is the closing of the eyes and the stopping of the ears to the promises of God made to Israel through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through Moses, David and the prophets, that perpetuates the blindness to the identification of the modern Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, and kindred peoples of Western Europe as descendants of ancient Israel.

The Church, with few exceptions, claims to believe in God's Word from cover to cover, but chooses to ignore the glorious Truth of God's faithfulness to Israel. In doing so it has to deny the literal and reiterated promises of Genesis, teaching that they are only spiritual promises. Proof of the identity of these Caucasian nations as Israel has been laid before the Christian community for decades, now confirmed by archaeological evidence.

The Church preaches individual salvation of, "Whosoever believes," but are silent upon the Redemption of Israel, equally taught in the Scriptures. In doing so they rob our Lord Jesus Christ of the glory due Him as the Redeemer of Israel Who came to confirm the promises made unto the fathers and secondly, that the Gentiles, meaning nations, might glorify God for His mercy.

The clergy rejects this mighty work of God for the same reason that the religious leaders did in Christ's day. We read in John 23:42, "Among the chief rulers also many believed on Him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." How true this is today!

I said the Christian community is robbing Jesus Christ of the glory due Him as the Redeemer of Israel. I think most of you will agree with that statement. Now I ask the question, "Are you robbing Jesus Christ of the glory due Him as the redeemer of the world?"

I know some of you are thinking Christ can only be the Redeemer of Israel that He had and lost. But didn't He have, and still has the whole world in His control? Romans 11:36 reads, "For from Him every thing comes, through Him every thing exists, and in Him every thing ends! Glory to Him forever! Amen." (Goodspeed)

Israel was redeemed by the death of Christ on the cross for a very important plan in the redemption of the world as the Stone Kingdom, when the Kingdom of God comes on earth as it is in heaven. At that time, I believe, God will use Israel in the long process of redeeming the world as described in Ephesians 1:10 which reads, "That in the dispensation of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and are on earth in him." Notice it reads, "all things in Christ."

Acts 3:21 tells of Christ, "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." That statement is unconditional with no conditions attached to it. Restitution, according to the best English usage, means the act of restoring something that has been lost or taken away. Paradise lost? The restoration would be universal and would include all things.

Do you doubt God's power to restore all things? Revelation 5:9 reads, "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;"

There is a day coming, as Paul wrote in Romans 14:11, "For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every kneed shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God." Christ did not say, "Israel" or "Caucasian," or "White," but every knee and every tongue.

Paul also wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:19, "To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Isaiah wrote in chapter 26:9, "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Notice, it reads inhabitants of the world, not just the Christian nations.

David also had a vision of the Great Day of the Lord when he wrote in Psalms 23:27-28, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among the nations."

None of us will see that Great Day of the Lord, even if we witness the Second Advent when the Kingdom of God appears on earth, because they don't happen simultaneously. The Second Advent starts the long process of redemption of the world that will climax at the beginning of the Great Day of the Lord, a day of which John prophesied in Revelation 11:15, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and they shall reign for ever and ever."

At that time, time is no more, and eternity is not measured by time -no beginning or ending. Revelation tells us, Christ said, "Behold, I make all things new." Christ will leave no spot in the universe unrenewed. Then cometh the end when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom of God to the Father.

In closing my short message, I would like to read a paragraph out of my latest book, The Olivet Prophecies. "It is most regrettable that ministers of the Gospel for century after century, with few exceptions, have failed to differentiate between the thousand year kingdom age and the age of ages, which in Ephesians

1:10 is called the â€˜dispensation of the fullness of time' and with its end, time is no more -eternity. Scripture dealing with the end of the age of ages is often attributed to the age of the Lord, which is the Kingdom Age."

In this message I use the term "Great Day of the Lord," for the end of the Kingdom Age, and the start of the "Age of Ages," known as the dispensation of the fullness of time, when time is no more. That concludes my message. But I have a P.S.

Now, may I say a word in my behalf? Friends, and I hope you are all still my friends. Before you write me off as going overboard on theology, please do one thing for me. Study your bible and various translations to find Biblical justification for deciding that my stand on "Restitution of All Things" is not valid. At the same time keep in mind a fundamental rule of science that can be applied to Bible Study. "It is not what has been believed, but what is truth." I also recommend that you get a copy of The Restitution of All Things, by G. R. Hawtin, as a first step in the study of atonement.

[The above article may have surprised some of you who were not aware that Archaeologist E. Raymond Capt has believed and taught the Restitution of All Things for the last fifty years. Critics of this teaching would have you believe that it is some "new" doctrine and that there are only a handful of ministers who have embraced this doctrine. I did not learn this message just a few years ago. I have known and believed the Restitution of All Things since I learned it and the Israel Truth from Pastor J. V. Foster of San Antonio, Texas as a young man. Yes, I am aware that certain ministries and ministers disagree with this teaching and some have even resorted to using unpleasant belittling words against those of us who hold to this teaching. I can say this, that if I believed and taught the Restitution of All things as they claim we believe, portraying this teaching to promote race-mixing and that we can live anyway we want to escape the judgment of God, they are carelessly wrong.

I might add, if Mr. Capt is deceived, as some claim, for believing in God's corrective and restorative plan of the Ages, you can include me in that number who believe "God's mercy (not His judgments) endures forever." It might also interest you to know that there are many other Israel teachers of this truth such as George Southwick, Jory Brooks, James Bruggeman, Mike Spradlin, John Lovell, Ray Prinzing, Ernestine Young, Robert Phillips, Dave Parkhurst, Steve Jones, Ron Oja, George R. Hawtin, Dan Henry, J. V. Foster, Bob Hallstrom, John Foxe, Ron Poch, Rudy Jones, Warwick Potts, & Kenneth Leckey. Please study out this issue for yourself and remember to follow these admonitions from the Word.

Eccl. 7:25, "I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:"

Prov. 25:2 "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." ]
Pastor Dave Barley America's Promise, PO Box 157, Sandpoint, ID 83864